


all i really was doing was waiting (for you)

by mingowow



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Countryside Life, First Meeting, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Summer Love, Superpowers, manipulating elements, soonyoung and jihoon are cousins, soonyoung runs an ice cream shop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24092248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mingowow/pseuds/mingowow
Summary: soonyoung often wonders why he couldn't have gotten a cool gift, like jihoon and his ability to control fire.manipulating ice doesn't lend itself to much (aside from making ice cream).
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 76
Collections: Seventeen Rare Pair Fest: Round 1





	1. chocolate

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SVTRarePairFest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SVTRarePairFest) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Soongyu + ice cream dates
> 
> \---
> 
> i took a lot of liberties with this prompt and i'm sad the story isn't finished yet, but i hope what i have done so far is still a fun read!
> 
> unbeta'd, we die like men~
> 
> title is from the song "real love" by the beatles/john lennon

Soonyoung's childhood was filled with so many things he never questioned as a boy.

His mother's green thumb wasn't impressive, it was just the kind of gardener she was. Even if neighboring farms struggled a particular season, his mother never seemed to have issues. Soonyoung didn't even find it odd that their friends' farms always thrived too, while sometimes the less than friendly folk around Namyangju would suffer some particular droughts (especially that mean old witch of a lady who tore off young Soonyoung's head when he accidentally flew off his bike and into her rows of sweet potatoes.)

Soonyoung never thought much of his father's handiness either, how no matter what electrical trouble they had, his father was always able to fix it in no time at all. Everything from burnt-out lightbulbs to blown fuse boxes; his father always seemed to have the magic touch.

It wasn't until he was a bit older that he realized there was something a bit more to his parents' exceptional skills. And not just his parents', but his grandparents' and for generations reaching back as far as their familial stories seemed to reach. It wasn’t just innate talent or practiced competence. Every person in his bloodline possessed some sort of gift, some power they could wield over an element.

His mother's extraordinary gardening abilities were partially thanks to her own ability. Her touch and whispers could cause plants to grow and thrive. And no, she had clarified to Soonyoung many times, she never "cursed" that mean witch down the road or her crops; she just simply didn't share her gifts with her as she had with their friends. Soonyoung didn't know if it was possible to love his mother any more than he did at that moment.

And his father's adept abilities with home repairs and his own handiwork business were especially enhanced by his own gifts when it came to working with electricity. Over twenty years in the field and he's never been electrocuted, let alone shocked. Not once!

His uncle has an impressive set of skills himself: he can adjust and affect the weather. Evidently it was a very draining gift to possess though, which is why he never abused his power (unless he wanted to pass out for days on end).

But Soonyoung's cousin, Jihoon, had the best ability in his opinion: he could manipulate and control fire.

There had been a lot of hesitancy in the family regarding his gift; fire could be not only dangerous but also disastrous to their livelihood with their farms. But to everyone's relief, Jihoon never showed much interest in stretching his ability legs; he spent most of his time cooped up in his room, in front of his computer, the expertise of conjuring fire with only his hands and mind seeming to almost bore him.

Soonyoung has always been terribly jealous of Jihoon's gift. He has his own skill, of course, but it was nothing like the awesomeness of being able to summon or control flames on command.

Soonyoung's "gift" (if one could even call it that, he argued time and time again) was all about the useless ability to manipulate ice.

Ice. It served no real purpose _at all_ in his daily life, aside from stupid little things like keeping the things in the fridge cold after it broke down one time and Soonyoung's dad was hours away down in Daegu, so he couldn't fix the appliance right away.

His mother claims that they've saved loads on bills thanks to him too, but Soonyoung hardly considers that a life-fulfilling accomplishment.

There was a long stretch of time where Soonyoung wanted to use his seemingly pointless gift for good. It took some time for him to think of something but when he finally did, his confident teenaged self had proudly told his parents he'd use his abilities to help save the melting ice caps.

Needless to say, that dream had been short-lived. Not only was it infeasible for a single teenager to save the world but with the less than stellar grades Soonyoung was pulling, getting anywhere near a position that would grant him access to spearheading climate change prevention was a pipedream.

So, as many dreamers have to do, he had to settle for something a bit more realistic.

Running an ice cream shop may have seemed like a fun job to kid Soonyoung but at twenty-five, it's quite far from giving him a sense of accomplishment.

Sure, there was some joy to be found in seeing the way a child’s face lit up when presented with a cone towering with scoops of ice cream he himself created, but it was by far what one might call a small happiness. A very simple, fleeting pleasure.

But what was he to do at this point? Ice is pretty much limited to very few specific uses, so Soonyoung clings to those tidbits of joy, however brief the flicker of satisfaction might be.

He’s just had one of those moments, watching from behind the counter as a young couple and their toddler daughter share a cup of his personal favorite creation: strawberries and milk. It had been the first flavor he had ever experimented with.

(It was back when he was a teen and his parents didn’t have the extra cash to splurge on a pint of ice cream that he so desperately wanted during that summer’s excruciating heatwave. But they had bottles of fresh milk from their neighbor down the road and his mother had frozen some strawberries from earlier in the season... It was the first time Soonyoung had felt some semblance of pride regarding his gift; he was able to help sate his entire family’s overheating with the sweet taste of milk ice cream swirled with strawberry juice and fresh, hearty chunks of the fruit. His destiny from that point had been, unfortunately, very clear: ice cream. Stupid yet delicious _ice cream_.)

Soonyoung is so caught up in watching the precious display of the cooing father wiping pink streaks from the little girl’s cheek that he doesn’t even register the little bell on the store’s door jingling, the sound getting lost in the acoustic strummings of some oldies cover he has pumping through the speakers. The customer is quiet, only shuffling feet and heaving far too many soft sighs. So many that it finally does pull Soonyoung’s attention.

Most of his customers are families, occasionally some elderly couples out together for “a day downtown” (if the two-block strip of stores and buildings could even be called a proper downtown) or some bored local high schoolers looking to kill time.

He’s not used to greeting customers like this guy, tall and young and stupidly handsome, all alone and looking what Soonyoung can only label as _dejected_. Ice cream shops are supposed to be happy places! It’s the one good thing about Soonyoung’s job! The pure, unadulterated happiness!

“Hi there,” he says finally. The guy doesn’t pull his sad eyes away from the ice cream display case. “What can I get for you?”

There’s no response as the guy continues to scan the glass case separating the two of them. Soonyoung only has eight flavors out (there isn’t a need for much more when he has such limited business and traffic anyway), so he’s not sure why it’s such a difficult decision for him to choose one.

“You don’t have mint choco?” he finally asks, slowly dragging his eyes up to look at Soonyoung properly. 

He really _does_ look depressed, his expression not doing anything to hide it. Soonyoung feels a twinge of empathy in his chest. He would normally inquire what’s wrong but he doesn’t recognize this person and he’s pretty sure he knows everyone in the entire community, given its size and sense of tightness. Is it really his place to inquire about the mental state of a stranger? Sure, people out here are generally more open and approachable, but this guy reeks of Seoul and Soonyoung doesn’t know how well an attractive, probably cool guy from the big city will take his country hospitality.

“No,” Soonyoung finally replies, breaking out of his reverie. “I can’t stand mint choco so can’t say I’ve ever tried my hand at making it.” It’s true; just the thought of chocolate mixed with the minty taste of toothpaste… _bleh_.

“Oh. It’s my favorite,” the other replies with a small, humorless laugh. “What do you recommend then?”

“All of them. I made them all so they’re all good, I can promise that,” Soonyoung says honestly with a shrug. He evaluates the guy again, tilting his head in thought. “But for someone like you, hmm… maybe classic chocolate would be a good choice.”

“Someone like me?”

“Yeah, you know…” Soonyoung trails off, opting to act out his thoughts rather than put them into words. He circles his finger around his face, forcing a frown. It’s good for breaking the tension in his experience. Sometimes. “Chocolate is a good pick-me-up.”

His attempts must be successful because the guy smiles at him (it’s small and short-lived, but definitely a smile of some kind!)

“Okay. Can I get a half-gallon of chocolate then?”

Oh, a half-gallon. Maybe the guy isn’t as devastated as Soonyoung anticipated and he’s just sulky about being the one having to run the errand of picking up ice cream on this gross, humid day.

“You got it!”

Soonyoung packs the container to the rim, as full as it can get. He grins at the customer as he’s given a credit card for payment and Soonyoung can’t help his curiosity when he glances at the name on it.

Kim Mingyu. He doesn’t know of any Mingyus around here but he knows the Kim family on the edge of town and there’s also old Mrs. Kim who runs the biggest herb farm around these parts. Maybe he’s related to one of them. He can’t see why some young guy like him would come all the way out here unless he had a good enough reason to.

Soonyoung is about to place the ice cream in a paper bag but Mingyu waves him off.

“No, no. It’s okay, I don’t need a bag.”

Soonyoung shrugs and pushes the container towards him. “Suit yourself. Hope you enjoy it and come back around here again.”

Mingyu gives him one of those faint smiles again, holding the container easily in one hand. Soonyoung watches him head for the door--

Except he doesn’t go to the door. He slides into an empty booth in the corner of the tiny shop and pops off the lid. Mingyu stares at the ice cream and then, almost sheepishly, slides back out of his seat and straight towards Soonyoung.

“Um, sorry, I didn’t get a spoon.”

Soonyoung blinks at him, slightly confused. But he silently grabs a long metal spoon from the holder and hands it to the guy.

“Thanks.”

It’s remarkable, really. In the four years or so Soonyoung has run this place, he’s never seen a single person sit down and go to town on that much ice cream right in front of him. If Soonyoung didn’t have a feeling before that something was wrong with him, this sure sealed the deal.

The family with the young daughter leaves and after he cleans up their dishes and wipes down their table, he slowly saunters his way over to Mingyu, his face practically smashed into the almost half-eaten tub of ice cream.

“How’s it taste?” he asks, trying to mask his curiosity under the guise of the concerned owner when really, more than wanting to know if the guy likes it, he wants to know why he’s shoveling so much of it into his face.

Mingyu’s eyes flicker up at him, smudges of chocolate caught in the corner of his lips. Soonyoung has half a thought to reach out with a crumpled napkin from the table and wipe at the (it’s the kind of thing they do around here), but he snaps out of that pretty quickly.

“Listen, I don’t wanna overstep or anything but I’m really bad at holding back things so… is everything alright?” he finally allows himself to ask, pulling out a chair at a neighboring table so he’s not _completely_ up in the stranger’s space.

This seems to catch Mingyu off-guard, making him suddenly sit up straight and avert his eyes. Despite the speed at which he’s been scooping freezing ice cream into his mouth, his face appears to heat up, radiating a bright, warm pink color.

“Wow, this is embarrassing,” he says with a small laugh. Soonyoung frowns.

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, I’m sorry. I was just concerned--”

“I understand,” Mingyu cuts him off. “My grandma always insisted people around here were the kindest you could ever meet. Guess I’m just not used to it.”

“Your grandmother? Are you Mrs. Kim’s grandson?” Soonyoung asks, without thinking. It seems to catch Mingyu by surprise and it’s only then he realizes that was probably a somewhat creepy thing to reveal he had figured out. _Stupid big-mouthed Soonyoung_ , he thinks to himself.

“Yeah. Do you know her?” Soonyoung is relieved that Mingyu doesn’t seem to make the connection that it’s odd how he knew who he could be.

“Of course,” Soonyoung says, clearing his throat and trying to swallow down his embarrassment. “Everyone knows everyone here.”

“Ah, right,” Mingyu nods, poking at the remaining ice cream with his spoon. “I know I must look really pathetic right now.”

“Naw, I’ve seen much worse.” Soonyoung really has, when it comes to food. Nobody would believe how much food Jihoon could pack away given his size, but he could easily out-eat four people. He’s not big on ice cream but if he was, Soonyoung is positive he could down that half-gallon of it in a matter of ten minutes, brain freezes and all.

“I just thought ice cream would make me feel better and if I took it home, I knew my grandma would probably worry, so…”

Soonyoung nods, not wanting to pry but being _painfully_ curious as to what has Mingyu so torn up. 

“Well, feel free to gorge away here whenever you like. That’s what I’m here for.”

“Thanks. Um, I didn’t catch your name?” Mingyu’s voice, raising at the end like it’s a question. There’s still chocolate stuck around his lips and it’s killing Soonyoung to just simply stare at.

“Oh, sorry. How rude of me… I’m Kwon Soonyoung. I live just down the way from your grandma.”

“Oh, the Kwons! She has talked about your family quite a bit. I’m Mingyu.”

That has Soonyoung smiling. His mom helps out Mrs. Kim (and Mr. Kim, before he passed) regularly, especially during tough crop years. His dad even helps her out with some chores around the farm, free of charge. Soonyoung can’t say his powers have ever been needed to help her out before, but he always liked the woman. She’d always sneak him extra servings of food at town festivals and gatherings, patting his cheeks and commenting on his handsomeness. Truthfully, she seemed like a near perfect grandmother.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mingyu-ssi. Are you staying with your grandma?”

Mingyu nods, seeming to reluctantly press the lid back onto his ice cream container. “Just for a little while. I wanted to get away from Seoul for a bit, so I offered to help her out and she’s letting me stay with her.”

Soonyoung hums, again not pushing but knowing he’s inching ever-so-close to soothing his curiosity in regards to just what is wrong with this Mingyu guy.

“I see. I’ll admit it’s not too exciting around here but it can be nice and relaxing, perhaps a good place to clear your head and recharge.”

Mingyu nods and smiles; it’s the most genuine one Soonyoung has seen from him since he entered the shop. “Thanks. It seems nice here. Um, do you think I could bother you for a bag now?”

“Oh. Sure,” Soonyoung says, annoyed at the disappointment evident in his voice. A bag means Mingyu is leaving and truthfully, he’s been the most interesting thing Soonyoung has encountered in some time.

But being the good business owner he is, he grabs a bag and packs up the ice cream for Mingyu, who is finally wiping his face clean with a napkin, all traces of chocolate gone.

“Hopefully we’ll run into each other sometime,” Soonyoung tells him, in earnest.

“Thanks, Soonyoung-ssi. I hope so too.”

Soonyoung watches as the other heads out the door, leaving him alone in his shop. It’s only then that he realizes his playlist has stopped playing and there’s no music, just the hum of the aircon on the wall and the buzz of the freezers.

Soonyoung takes his time cleaning up and gets to work on a new batch of chocolate ice cream, given Mingyu almost single-handedly emptied him out of the flavor. It’s only Friday afternoon and there’s bound to be a nighttime rush (or what their town could call “a rush”) given the weather.

He has his hands hovering over the chocolatey mixture, using only a fraction of his energy to gradually freeze the sweet liquid, his mind stupidly replaying the way Mingyu’s eyes were brimming with sadness, his hunched over posture as he practically shoved his face into the ice cream, the bits of chocolate clung to the tanned skin of his pretty face.

Soonyoung was really honest about one thing: if such an occurrence as a new face coming into his shop got him so worked up, his hometown really wasn’t that exciting.


	2. melona

There’s something to be said about Soonyoung’s mind once it’s set on something. Sure, he can be talked down from the ledge ( _ahem_ saving the icecaps) but more often than not, he’s likely to ram his skull into a wall repeatedly until he breaks through it, so to say. So his mother tends to say, at least.

Anyway, the important thing to note is that once he has his mind set on something, he sees it through. And that’s where he finds himself now, unable to shake the new face that is Kim Mingyu from his mind. And the question that keeps eating away at him? Why was the boy from the city so damn sad?

Soonyoung truthfully hates seeing others upset and something about the guy seemingly having run away from Seoul to stay with his grandma in a town where he doesn’t appear to know anybody… Soonyoung’s heart practically aches. He wants to help him, he wants to comfort him in ways that aren’t just supplying mountains of ice cream so he can eat his feelings.

And yeah, so what if Soonyoung keeps thinking about his handsome face and long limbs and the chocolate all cutely stuck in the corners--

“ _Hello_. Earth to Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung’s head snaps up, so quickly he’s surprised he doesn’t get whiplash.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jihoon sighs. “Great. Look at this brisket, it’s now encased completely in a block of ice. It’ll maybe thaw out in the next decade, good job.”

It’s midday on Monday and while it’s his day off from running his shop, his parents have made sure to keep him (and Jihoon) busy all morning. 

There’s a local summer festival happening this weekend and, as per usual, his family plopped themselves in the middle of handling so many of the preparations. Currently, their house was acting as a storage facility for donated foods for the festivities, which means Soonyoung was put to work not only packing and organizing all the drop-offs, but also hand freezing them before storing them away in their family’s excessive freezer collection.

Their family may save on bills because of Soonyoung but they sure do make him work for it. Eco-friendly Soonyoung for hire.

“What has you so distracted? You’ve been like this for days,” Jihoon gripes, taking the block of frozen brisket and banging it on the metal table to show that, yep, it’s a solid block of ice at this point.

“Sorry,” Soonyoung apologizes weakly, wiping at his brow. Despite the coldness surrounding his abilities, he often conjures up a sweat when put to work like this. “I think I need a break.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie; perhaps a break to recharge, rehydrate, and allow himself to properly stew over Kim Mingyu would somehow allow him to focus after indulged his thoughts a bit.

Jihoon says nothing, his hands hovering over the brisket ice cube, radiating just enough light heat to melt the excessive ice around it.

“I’m hungry too. Wanna run down to the corner and get us something? I’ll clean up your mess here,” Jihoon tells him, motioning to the puddle of water that is now running off the table.

“ _My_ mess? You’re the one melting it!”

“You were in la-la-land and turned it into a glacier!”

Their bickering continues for a few minutes but Soonyoung comes out victorious in his opinion because he leaves with two 10,000 won bills from Jihoon’s wallet in his pocket.

It’s about a five-minute walk down the gravel road to the nearest convenience store. It’s the only non-residential building (aside from the gas station kitty-corner to it) within a kilometer so naturally, it’s a place he and most young people in the vicinity visit. There’s usually always someone camped out on a table outside it, old men drinking soju or young teens slurping down ramen. 

There’s only one person out there when he arrives, probably due to the time of day and the fact that it’s obnoxiously hot and sunny. The sky is a big stretch of blue, there isn’t a cloud in sight. He glances their way but the guy is halfway hidden around the side of the building, standing in front of the trash cans.

He greets the worker, a middle-aged woman who’s always on her phone watching anime. Soonyoung’s tried to sneak glances at it before but he doesn’t recognize the drawing style or the characters. He’s tried talking to the woman too but she’s pretty tight-lipped; he doesn’t even know if he’s ever seen her break the blank expression always on her face.

Given his frequency to the store, he’s quick to pick up everything he needs (4 cups of ramen, 2 bottles of Pocari Sweat, a few cans of Coke for Jihoon because he claims it somehow quenches his thirst, some Turtle Chips…) and deposit it all on the counter.

The cashier barely pulls her eyes away from her phone screen as she rings it up and rattles off the price. Soonyoung happily hands over Jihoon’s money and starts packing the items into his backpack. His mother would probably chide them for not eating something at home (something healthier and homegrown) but Soonyoung makes _ice cream_ for a living. He’s no stranger to indulging in the guilty pleasures convenience store food has to offer.

He’s zipping up his bag as he steps outside, squinting at the sudden brightness of the sun again. But even with the temporary blindness, he doesn’t miss the face of the man now sitting at the table in front of the doorway.

It’s Kim Mingyu. Kim Mingyu who’s in a sleeveless shirt, the armholes cut down low, all the way to his ribs. His hair is sticking up messily, slightly damp, and there’s a sheen of sweat along his brow. Soonyoung thinks about how absolutely unfair it is for someone to look that good when they aren’t even trying to. He certainly could never look that good without excessive effort.

Normally he’d feel a bit more jealous but in the moment, he just feels… admiration.

“Mingyu-ssi, what are the chances,” he greets, backpack strap sliding down his arm, the weight of all his purchases jerking his shoulder downward and causing him to stumble a bit.

That was a dumb thing to say honestly because there are only so many places for people to go around these parts and given that Mingyu’s grandmother lives not even a ten-minute walk away… stupid Soonyoung.

Mingyu’s head tilts up at this, a strand of damp hair standing up straight, and oh, it’s really quite precious, Soonyoung thinks.

“Oh! Hey,” Mingyu replies, an easy smile breaking out on his face. He seems lighter than when Soonyoung met him days before, somehow more at ease.

It’s then that Soonyoung notices the popsicle stick in his hand, already starting to melt.

“Melona, huh? I thought mint choco was your favorite.”

Mingyu laughs, pointy little canines that Soonyoung hadn’t noticed before poking out. His face seems pinker but realistically, he knows it’s probably just because of the heat and whatever it was the other had been doing that had him working up a sweat.

“Honeydew sounded refreshing,” Mingyu shrugs, looking over his snack before popping the tip into his mouth. Soonyoung forces himself to look down at the concrete beneath their feet.

“Ah, you mean that you realized how unappetizing eating toothpaste flavored ice cream is, Mingyu-ssi?” he jokes, finally pulling his backpack strap back onto his shoulder and hefting it up. The snacks all rattle around and he hears the unfortunate crunching, crushing sound of his precious Turtle Chips.

Another laugh erupts out of Mingyu as he shakes his head, his wrist going limp and the popsicle nearly falling out of his hand. It drips creamy light green drops onto the steel mesh table, some dripping all the way down to the ground.

“You can just call me Mingyu. My grandma said you’re a year older than me, so.”

His grandma said that? Does that mean Mingyu had talked about him to his grandmother? The thought causes his stomach to flutter a bit and suddenly the heat of the midday sun seems to be getting to him, even though they’re both hidden under the shade of the store’s large awning.

Mingyu _talked_ about him which means Mingyu thought about him, just like Soonyoung had thought about him.

Probably not to the same extent; Soonyoung’s mind has been wandering back to Mingyu more than he would ever feel comfortable admitting to the other outloud. But still! One thought is still a thought!

“Oh really? Well, then I guess that means you can call me hyung,” Soonyoung smiles. “You seem to be in a better mood today, Mingyu. I’m glad.”

That seems to catch Mingyu off-guard because his smile falters a bit and a strange expression passes over his face. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Soonyoung, even when the younger plasters another smile back on.

“I am, even though my grandma is working me like a dog. I feel like I’ve sweat more here in one weekend than I have in my entire life.” 

Mingyu’s wrist swivels again and splatters of green fly about.

“Be careful,” Soonyoung warns with a smile, stepping closer and lightly pushing Mingyu’s hand back upright.

It only causes a trickle of melted honeydew milk to slip down the back of Mingyu’s hand, trailing down his wrist and upper forearm.

“Ahh!” Mingyu squeals, raising his arm up as far as it’ll go, as if that’ll help somehow. “I need a napkin!”

The city boy uses his free hand to start rifling through the bag next to him. Soonyoung doesn’t think twice before reaching his hands up and cupping them around the melting popsicle, gently pulling forth some of his energy and helping the Melona treat refreeze.

It must work well enough that Mingyu can feel the sudden rush of coldness from it because he gasps, hand jerking as he suddenly looks up. Soonyoung quickly drops his hands and takes a step back, attempting to keep his face neutral but knowing he’s never been that great at keeping anything a secret.

“What the--” Mingyu pulls his popsicle close to his face and inspects it.

“Um. I gotta get going, my cousin is waiting for me,” Soonyoung rattles off, pulling on his backpack straps nervously. “I’ll see you later! Stay cool!”

Soonyoung all but breaks out into a run as he heads back towards his house. He wants to look back, to see if Mingyu is watching him or chasing after him asking what black magic he used to help freeze his melting ice cream but… really, what normal human’s brain would jump straight to, ‘ _this guy must have superpowers!_ ’? Soonyoung knows he’s nervous for little reason, even if Mingyu’s confused as to what the hell just happened to him.

But there really is no explanation! And he saw Soonyoung standing _right there_ , with his hands all up in his space. Stranger things have happened than someone being able to freeze things with sheer mind power, right? It’s not like he’s Jihoon, able to set things on fire with just his brain. Or his mom, causing flowers to bloom and plants to flourish with the wave of her hand. It’s just stupid ice! Nothing too weird...

“Did you get lost or something? Took you long enough,” Jihoon jabs, unzipping Soonyoung’s backpack before he even has it off his shoulders.

He’s huffing and puffing up a storm as he toes off his shoes, haphazardly kicking them aside.

“Jihoon. I may have done something a bit stupid,” he admits.

His cousin heaves a sigh. “What’s new?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments/kudos are appreciated!!
> 
> please let me know what you think ^^


	3. green tea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for keeping up with this story!
> 
> unbeta'd, sorry!

Soonyoung had really hoped that things would somehow fizzle out, get swept under the rug, and life as he knew it would return to its boring normalcy.

Of course, life doesn’t work that way _at all_ , least of all when one decides to publicly display their unnatural, inhuman “superpower” directly in front of an unsuspecting ordinary human being. And not even for a worthwhile reason, like preventing a mugging or catching kids egging a house or saving a cat from a tree.

But because Soonyoung has a stupid little “ _crush_ ” (as Jihoon insists he must have, “it’s the only explanation for your increased stupidity”) on some guy he doesn’t even know. And he, for whatever reason, couldn’t bear the world-shattering crisis of letting his melona bar melt all over his golden-skinned hand.

It would be fine if Soonyoung never had to see Mingyu again, if it had been their last encounter and he only had to live with the thought that maybe some guy from Seoul thought the ice cream guy around Namyangju was weird as hell.

But nope, again, life doesn’t work that way, it could never be so kind. It’s brutal and horrible and downright cruel because Mingyu comes to the ice cream shop again. Not just one or two times but _every single day_. Every day he comes, never at the same time either so Soonyoung can prepare himself for his visit or temporarily close up if he so wishes. Nope, it’s always random, unpredictable.

And it’s not like Mingyu acts like anything weird happened either. He comes in, casual and happy, always looking almost annoyingly good. Sometimes he’s dressed up oddly, in pants that are too nice for everyday farm life and flowy button-down shirts that look silky to the touch (not that Soonyoung would know because he forces himself to refrain from reaching out and rubbing the material between his fingers) and other times he’s in sleeveless shirts and mud-wiped shorts, all messy hair and sweaty, glistening skin.

Soonyoung doesn’t know which version is more difficult for him to interact with.

Mingyu tries a new flavor every day (thankfully just a single scoop or two if he’s extra hungry, no more half-gallons), always asking about Soonyoung’s inspiration or stories in creating them. It’s weird, Soonyoung thinks, but Mingyu always seems genuinely interested in hearing him out.

And it’s not just ice cream he asks him about. Mingyu seems interested in every aspect of his life, from his family to his childhood to his hobbies. Soonyoung would be absolutely smitten (well, he _is_ pretty smitten) if he weren’t so on edge about Mingyu jumping out from somewhere in his pantry one day, pointing at him and yelling “Aha, caught you!!” while Soonyoung is using his powers to make a new batch of ice cream.

He knows the reality of that situation happening is very unlikely, especially given how on edge he’s been about making sure Mingyu doesn’t catch up doing anything abnormal ever again.

Groaning, Soonyoung purposely knocks his head against the hanging cabinets in the tiny kitchen of his shop. It’s nearing 3 PM and Mingyu still hasn’t made his daily visit.

“Hello?” a feminine voice rings out from the storefront.

Soonyoung stands up straight and automatically stops his hands from circling around the new batch of sweet corn flavor he’s been working on.

“Hello! Just a moment!” he calls back.

He quickly chucks the metal container into the tiny freezer before stepping out and properly greeting the customer, who he recognizes to be Jiwon, a girl who graduated a few years before Soonyoung. She helps out her parents on their sheep ranch but the two were never terribly close for Soonyoung to know much about her. She’s pretty and sweet though, Soonyoung thinks, perhaps a bit mousy.

As Soonyoung is packing up her order to-go, he notices her shuffling around on her feet, as if she wants to say something. Soonyoung glances up at her face with an arched eyebrow, smiling lightly, inviting for her to speak.

“Gosh, this is going to sound so silly of me but… have you seen Kim Mingyu today?”

Soonyoung’s hand slips as he’s scooping, knuckles plunging into the hard choco-coffee ice cream she had ordered, his hand coming up sticky and cold. Jiwon all but squeaks, shaking her head furiously.

“I’m sorry, I’m so embarrassed. It’s just… well, my, um, sister seems to have a bit of a crush on him and I’ve heard the two of you are close, so… Never mind, it was silly of me to ask.”

The woman is blushing furiously, cheeks blooming red as Soonyoung finishes packing up her to-go container. She swipes the bag from him and scurries out without so much as a goodbye.

While Soonyoung washes the ice cream from his hand, he plays over the scenario in his head again and again. Why on Earth would she assume the two of them were close? He hardly knows the guy! And where would she have heard that from anyway?

As if he possesses summoning powers, the bell on the shop’s door jingles just as Soonyoung dries off his hands.

“Hyung!” Mingyu greets, using his fingers to swipe back his damp, messy hair. “How’s it going?”

Soonyoung unintentionally gives Mingyu a once-over, sucking in a small breath.

Dammit, it’s a ‘dirty and sweaty from farmwork’ Mingyu day.

**\---**

Somehow, far too quickly, everyone in town not only seems to know Mingyu, but they seem to make some correlation between him and Soonyoung. It’s not just Jiwon but nearly everyone Soonyoung seems to run into at the shop or anywhere around town seems to ask him about Kim Mingyu.

Which is all very confusing to Soonyoung because aside from their run-in at the convenience store that one time, he’s never met the guy outside of the ice cream shop. He’s not sure how this connection has been made and he’s been racking his brain trying to recall if maybe someone at the shop has caught him ogling the other boy one too many times or if he had ever accidentally brought up Mingyu in passing conversations.

Okay, the first one is _possibly_ plausible but he’s been really good about not talking about him at all. In fact, the only person Soonyoung has at all mentioned him too is Jihoon but his cousin would never…

Wait. He just might.

When Soonyoung enters his cousin’s house, he nearly misses the greeting from his aunt, offering her a belated, hurried hello before he’s stomping up to Jihoon’s room. Of course he finds the other boy in front of his computer, nearly swallowed in his giant, high-backed swivel chair.

“I’m in the middle of something right now so whatever it is, can it wait--”

“ _Jihoon_.”

The tone of his voice must be effective enough because Jihoon’s head tilts ever so slightly away from the computer screen, towards Soonyoung.

“What’s got you all huffy?”

“Did you go telling people about me and Mingyu?”

This gets Jihoon’s full attention, his chair swiveling so he can look at Soonyoung head-on. His expression reads as amused, eyebrow arched and lips twitching.

“I didn’t know there was anything to say about you and Mingyu,” he replies. Soonyoung could throttle him.

“I’m being serious! What did you tell people?”

Jihoon heaves a sigh, rolling his eyes. “What are you talking about? I’ve never said anything about you and Mingyu to anyone. Why would I waste my time doing that?”

“I don’t know, you tell me! Why else would everyone always be coming to me and asking about him? How would they even know we’ve met before?”

With another sigh, Jihoon turns back to his computer, resuming his mouse clicking and keyboard typing. “Everyone around here knows everyone.”

Soonyoung frowns before opening his mouth to retort--

“--And it’s probably because Mingyu is always talking about you to everyone else.”

Wait, _what_? “Wait, what?”

“He’s always bringing you up to people, asking how they know you, what they think of you, if they go to your shop, weird stuff like that.”

Soonyoung feels like the room is spinning, he’s a mixture of elation (‘ _oh my god, Mingyu is interested in learning things about me???_ ’) and stomach-dropping terror (‘ _oh my GOD, he knows about my powers and is trying to find me out!!!_ ’)

“And how the hell would you know about that?”

“Know about what?”

“That he talks about me!”

“Uh, because he’s asked me about you? And I’ve overheard him talking about you with my mom the other day, and Mr. Ko once when I went to pick up some sweet potatoes, and with EuJae at the gas station last night--”

Soonyoung can feel the temperature in his face rising, beads of sweat already forming along his brow. “You’ve talked to him?!”

“Yeah. Why, is that a problem? I didn’t realize you owned him.”

“How could you not tell me you spoke with him?!”

“Sorry, let me just put my entire day on hold to call you and gossip about some guy you think is hot.” Jihoon makes a sound in the back of his throat like he’s about to hurl.

“Jihoon, I’m serious! He must know about my powers and he’s asking around trying to gather information to use against me!” Soonyoung can feel himself about to lunge off the edge of mild worry into full-blown hysteria.

Jihoon snorts, still clicking away on his mouse. “Are you that delusional? Yeah, you were dumb and showed more than what you should have to him but I got zero sense of malicious intent when I chatted with him. If anything, it sounded like…” he trails off, his finger slowly stopping its rapid movements.

“Sounded like what? Like what?!” Soonyoung shoves at the other’s chair.

“Like he was into you or something,” Jihoon finally finishes before his clicking seamlessly resumes.

Soonyoung flops down on his cousin’s bed, staring at the white ceiling with what he could only describe as a concoction of confusion and premature joy bubbling in his stomach.

Could Mingyu really just be into him? They hardly even know each other and they’ve never really properly hung out!

 _But then again_ , the somewhat intelligent part of Soonyoung’s brain reasons with him, _you seem to have a crush on him already yourself_.

Soonyoung whines and flails his limbs, accidentally kicking Jihoon’s chair in the process and unintentionally finding himself in a wrestling match because of it.

**\---**

Today the shop has been incredibly busy, which Soonyoung appreciates for reasons beyond it being good business and good for his bank account.

It’s a welcomed distraction from things that have been churning in his brain for what feels like weeks now. And while his mind does sometimes drift back to pointy canines peaking out in a smile and stupid melting melona running down golden skin, Soonyoung always has a phone call to answer or a cute little kid to smile at to break him out of his daydreams.

That is until Mingyu shows up for his daily visit. Despite the rushing and busyness of the day, Soonyoung allows himself to stare at the other’s face a moment longer than what is probably natural. Mingyu just grins at him in response, forearms coming up to rest on the ice cream display.

“Hey hyung! Anything new today?” he asks, finally peeling his eyes away from Soonyoung to scan the flavors below him.

Soonyoung hears a girl squealing at a nearby table, glancing in her direction as he who he can only assume is her boyfriend trying to drag a spoon filled with melting chocolate along her cheek. It’s cute. A bit annoying but still cute.

Soonyoung sighs quietly. “Green tea. Made it this morning.”

“Oh. Hmm. I’m not much of a green tea fan myself but I’ll try it, since you made it!” Mingyu offers him another bright smile and Soonyoung finds himself smiling in return.

As he scoops it up into the cup (Soonyoung doesn’t even ask anymore; he knows very well now that Mingyu prefers his ice cream in a cup, not a cone), his eyes keep flickering over at the other boy.

“Hey, so… tomorrow is my day off,” Soonyoung starts, packing the ice cream down a bit more tightly than he does for other customers. It’s become a habit with Mingyu. Maybe bad for his business but it feels good to him, for personal reasons.

“I know! I came by on a Monday a while back and everything was locked up and dark. Felt kinda dumb I didn’t read the hours sign beforehand,” Mingyu chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly, in a way that Soonyoung finds far too endearing.

Maybe Jihoon is right. Maybe Mingyu’s supposed curiosity in Soonyoung is from a genuine place and not some massive undercover, information gathering expedition. Maybe he actually _likes_ Soonyoung, just as a friend or… maybe something more. Hey, it could happen! There’s, like, a 0.0001% possibility but that’s still a possibility!

“Do you have any plans tomorrow?” Soonyoung asks, wondering if his nerves are as evident in his voice as he worries they might be. He hands Mingyu the cup and curses at himself quietly for his trembling fingers. He focuses his energy on cooling the cup, in hopes it stops the shaking.

Mingyu takes the cup, not seeming to notice but instead humming in thought. “Not really. I promised grandma I’d run to Mr. Ko’s to get some sweet potatoes for her but that’s about it.”

Wow, he really does seem to know people in town already, on a name basis and everything. It makes sense, he’s always seemed very conversational and friendly. He’s charming and handsome, sets a good example by being a young guy helping out his elderly grandmother. Soonyoung isn’t surprised Jiwon’s “sister” (he’s convinced it’s really Jiwon herself) is into him and he’s certain she’s not the only one.

Hell, he need only look in a mirror to find another person stupidly enamored with Mingyu.

Soonyoung focuses his attention on wiping at the sparkling clean glass in front of him, nervous. “Well, maybe if you wanted to, we could hang out or something? I know there isn’t a lot to do around here but we could take dad’s truck and drive out somewhere so you can see more than just this town.”

When he manages the courage to look up, Mingyu has his spoon in his mouth, lips puckered around it and eyebrows scrunched together in what looks like confusion.

Oh god. That was a stupid thing to ask, wasn’t it? Why would Mingyu wanna hang out with him, let alone _go anywhere_ with him? If he wanted to, wouldn’t he have asked already himself?

“Mfft,” Mingyu grunts, pulling the spoon from his mouth. “Still a bit grassy, in my opinion, but this is better than some others I’ve tried before,” Mingyu states, examining his cup before shoving the spoon back in.

Soonyoung stares at him for a moment, blinking. Did he not hear his proposition or was him ignoring it his way to somehow indirectly decline?

“Where do you want to go tomorrow?” Mingyu asks suddenly before taking another spoonful of green ice cream, his face once again contorting in thought.

Soonyoung feels himself exhale, having been holding his breath and not even realizing it.

“Maybe Yangpyeong? Have you been to Dumulmeori before?”

Mingyu shakes his head. “Nope! That sounds fun. Should I come by your place? Does 11 o’clock work? I should be done with my errands by then,” Mingyu replies, his mouth still full of ice cream.

Soonyoung isn’t even put off by his green mouth because holy shit, he has a plan to actually hang out with Mingyu. It’s not a date of course but still, it’s more than conversations exchanged over an ice cream display case.

“Yeah, 11 is great! I’ll be waiting for you.”

Mingyu pulls another grimace and Soonyoung, now knowing it’s from the green tea and not about his proposal to hang out, can’t help but laugh.

 _A day outside of this place with Mingyu_ , Soonyoung thinks to himself, suddenly realizing he had left the display case door open too long. He reaches in and lays his fingers on the metal tub of the closest flavor, stealthily cooling it with his touch.

_What could possibly go wrong?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! please let me know what you think ^^

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> thank you for reading~^^


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